MORE than half a million pupils are being taught mathematics by teachers who have only a limited grasp of the subject, research has found.

The survey by the Open University discovered that nearly one in four maths teachers in secondary schools has no relevant qualifications for the job. Some have little more than a degree in physical education.

The findings highlight the growing shortage of staff in the subject. Over the past 20 years, the number of maths teachers has dropped from more than 40,000 to a little over 20,000.

The situation is expected to deteriorate further over the next decade as waves of staff reach retirement age. Two thirds are aged over 40. The poll, which covered 22 local education authorities, concluded that secondary schools in England were short of 3,800 fully qualified maths teachers.

Schools which recently recruited maths teachers calculated that fewer than four out of ten counted as “good appointments”, while one in ten were desperate choices that they “would not normally have touched with a bargepole”. The sharp rise in private sector pay over the past decade, far outstripping that in the public sector, has tempted away graduates.

While teachers’ salaries will rise from about £20,000 to £30,000 between the ages of 25 and 39, a good maths student can enter the City on £35,000 and reach an average of more than £90,000 over the same time period.

The decline in competent, inspiring teachers has created a vicious circle. Last year, the number of pupils taking A-level maths fell by 12 per cent, while applications to read the subject at university dropped by 20 per cent, further reducing the supply of future maths teachers.

Sue Johnston-Wilder, from the Open University’s centre for mathematics education, said that the picture could be even bleaker than that portrayed in the survey, as the most hard-pressed schools did not have the time to respond.

She said that maths teachers were leaving because of the high workload, pupil indiscipline and an over-prescriptive approach by government.

“The shortage is part of a vicious circle as fewer students take mathematics post 16. It also brings an additional and overwhelming workload for the more experienced and qualified teachers and other knock-on effects, as teachers fail to take advantage of training because of a lack of supply teachers, for example.”

She urged the Government to consider adopting the French system where trainees with degrees in other subjects spend a year learning how to teach school maths as part of a two-year postgraduate teaching qualification. Otherwise, ministers would need to recruit 50 per cent of all maths graduates every year to meet its targets.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said: “It is still desperately difficult to recruit maths teachers and this impacts particularly badly on 11 to 14-year-olds, where the proportion of maths lessons being taught by poorly or unqualified teachers is unacceptably high.

“The problem is that there are many attractive careers for maths graduates to enter with higher salaries and better working conditions.

“We have to address the underlying problems of pay, working conditions, particularly of workload, and central government control over the curriculum.”

The Government said that the payment of £4,000 “golden hellos” for teachers in subjects such as maths was helping to solve the recruitment problems.

A spokesman said: “According to Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education), our schools now have the best teachers they have had in a generation, and the number of teachers leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement is falling. Over 98 per cent of maths teaching posts are filled, the vast majority by fully-qualified maths teachers.

“The introduction of training bursaries and golden hellos is bringing more maths graduates into teaching.

“Recruitment to training in maths this year is 8 per cent higher than last year and 30 per cent higher than it was in 1999/2000.”

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